Apr. 18—Beckley's City Manager Recruitment Committee unanimously recommended hiring a recruitment firm from Virginia over a Beckley company to find and hire a city manager.

After reviewing proposals from the two firms that bid on the task, committee members voted to recommend Baker Tilly of Fairfax County, Virginia.

AtWork Personnel of Beckley was the other company bidding. The city has worked with AtWork previously, using it last summer to recruit a pool manager and lifeguards for the city's pools.

The committee's recommendation will be forwarded to the Beckley Common Council for a final decision and vote at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in council chambers at Beckley City Hall.

Of the two proposals Beckley received from recruitment firms, Baker Tilly had a higher proposed fee and a longer projected timeline.

However, committee members said Baker Tilly's experience recruiting city managers in cities across the U.S. would benefit the city as it transitions to a city manager government.

"As we look at the roles and responsibilities, having people, not only people that have done the searches but educated people that know about municipalities, know about governance and stuff, I think will help us with some of the other things that we've been struggling to figure out," said committee member T. Ramon Stuart, WVU Tech's president.

Baker Tilly's proposed fee is $26,950 with an optional added fee of $1,650 should the city wish the company to conduct surveys with the local community to help "identify critical issues or priorities that your organization may consider as you launch an executive search," the proposal states.

Given the community's pushback regarding Beckley's decision to move forward with a city manager government, Stuart made a motion that the committee also recommend paying the additional fee for the survey.

The committee ominously approved Stuart's motion.

Should the city require any additional services from Baker Tilly, the proposal states that the city will be billed at an hourly rate of $300 plus expenses.

In its proposal, Baker Tilly states that its "typical timeline is 100-120 days from project kickoff to extending an offer of employment."

This means Baker Tilly would expect the Beckley Common Council to vote on a city manager candidate sometime in August, past the deadline set by Beckley's city manager ordinance.

Under that ordinance, council has until June 14 to appoint a city manager. Otherwise, the mayor will appoint an acting city manager until council can agree on an appointment.

The mayor's appointment of the interim city manager does not require approval from council per the ordinance, though council would approve the permanent hire.

AtWork's proposed fee is $15,000 or $85.50 an hour for its "tempt-to-hire" route.

AtWork's projected timeline was six weeks, which would mean it would have a final candidate before the June 14 deadline, eliminating the need for an interim appointment by the mayor.

Committee member and Beckley council member Robert Dunlap said he had used AtWork in the past for staffing needs at his law firm and added that, as a local company, AtWork would better understand the dynamics present in Beckley.

However, Dunlap voted to recommend Baker Tilly, citing its extensive background in hiring city managers, as highlighted in its proposal.

In its proposal, Baker Tilly provided a list of more than 100 instances since 2019, including nine that it's currently working on, where it was contracted to find city managers, city administrators, assistant city managers or similar jobs for communities across the U.S.

Some of those communities were in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

The populations of the communities it worked with ranged from around 2,000 to nearly 500,000. Beckley's population is around 16,700.

Given Baker Tilly's lengthier timeline proposal, Stuart said the council members who are also on the council should communicate this to the other council members and the public at their next meeting.

"I think being able to communicate that to the public and stuff will help alleviate some of the stress points," he said. "You know, everybody doesn't have to agree with it, but it's the reality ... so I would encourage council or whoever else to take that up as early as Tuesday."

Dunlap said council discussed related matters during an executive session at a meeting this week.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com